Electric alarm and fire-escape.



F. 0. WHITE, JR. ELECTRIC ALARM AND FIRE ESCAPE. APPLICATION FILED JULY 5,1912.

1,097,699w Patented ma 'za, 1914.

UNITED STATES PATENT onnron FRED 0. WHITE, JR., OF DENVER, COLORADO, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO' CHRISTOPHER J. THORMA N, 01? DENVER, COLORADO.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 26, 1914.

Application filed July 5, 1912. Serial N 0. 707,713.

. To all whom it may concern:

lie it known that I, FRED gC. Wr rrn, Jr., citizen of the United States, reslding 1n Denver, the city and county of Denver and State of Colorado, have invented certa n new and useful Improvements in Electric Alarms and Fire-Escapes; and I do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanymg drawings, and to the characters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

My invention relates to lmprovernents 1n alarms employed in connection with fire escapes, the system being more specially adapted for use in hotels and lodging houses. l-Ieretofore it has been common to provide each room in a hotel wlth a rope adapted for use in escaping from the building in case of fire.

The use of ropes constantly exposed 111 rooms of guests is objectionab e, since they aflford convenient means for committing suicide, and one object of my present invention is to conceal these ropes in such a manner that they are only exposed to view upon the breaking of the seal of a box 1n which they are contained and the unlocklng of a door of the box in order to give an alarm of fire. As soon as the door is unlocked the door automatically opens and closes a fire alarm circuit which rings a bell in the office of the hotel clerk. The construction is such that the fire alarm. circuit is normally broken when the door is closed, while a second alarm circuit is controlled by a switch accessible to the clerk of the hotel,

.the switch being normally in position to break the circuit. As soon, however, as any guest unlocks the door of the box in which the fire escape is located, and the alarm is given in the hotel office, the clerk, by operating the switch of the second alarm circuit, may simultaneously alarm the guests of all the other rooms which are equipped with the fire escape and alarm apparatus.

Having briefly outlined my improved construction, I will proceed to describe the same in detail, reference being made to the accompanying drawings, in which is illustrated an embodiment thereof.

in this drawing: Figure 1 is a view partly diagrammatic, illustrating my improved Fig. 2 1s a section taken on the .3-3, Fig. 1, looking toward the right, the

parts being also shown on a larger scale.

The same reference characters indicate the same parts in all the views. Let the numeral 5 designate a box, one of which, it may be assumed, is located in each room of the hotel. As illustrated in the drawing, four of these boxes are shown but it will, of course, be understood that any number of boxes may be employed. In each of these boxes is located a drum 6 upon which is wound a rope 7, for fire escape purposes. This drum, together with the rope thereon, is entirely concealed within the box when the door 8 is closed. Within the box are located two contact members 9 and 10. When the door is closed a screw 12 or other suitable device acts upon one of the contact members, being the member 10, as shown in the drawing, to separate the two members 9 and 10 whereby the circuit in which these contacts are located is broken. As shown in the drawing, an electrical conductor 13 leads to an annunciator 16, whence a second conductor 17 leads to a bell 18, from which a conductor 19 leads to a switch arm E20, whence a wire 21 leads to one pole 22 of a battery 23, or other suitable source of current. From the opposite pole 23 of this battery a conductor 24 leads to the contact 10 of the box 5. In the same manner, other conductors 13 lead from the contact 9 of each box 5 to the annunciator, from which branch wires 25 lead to the wire 17, whence the path of the current in completing the circuit is through the bell 18, the conductor 19, the switch arm 20 and the conductor 21 to the battery 22, whence the circuit is completed by way of the branch wires 26 which connect the contacts 10 of the various boxes below the uppermost. By virtue of this construction and arrangement it will be understood that when the door of any box 5 is opened, the spring contact 10 will move into engagement with the contact 9 and close the bell 18 and circuit through the annunciator 16, the latter indicating by displaying a numeral the number of the room where the fire is located. Furthermore, the electrical alarm device as a buzzer 27 is mounted on each door 8, and is con-v nected by meansof metal parts 28 and 29 with contacts 30 and 31 respectively. When the door is closed these contacts 30 and 31 are brought into engagement with other contacts 32 and 33, which, y means of branch wires 34 and 35, are connected with main -line wires 36 and 37. In connection with all of the boxes below the uppermost (see Fig. l) the branch wires 34 and 35 are employed, while. the twomain line wires 36 and 37 lead directly to the contacts 30 and 31 of the uppermost box. It will be understood that when the door is closed the contacts 30 and 31 are brought respectively into engagement with the contacts 32 and 33. The conductor 36 leads to a contact 38 which is adapted to be engagedby a switch arm 39 pivoted at 40. From the pivoted ex-. tremity of this arm the conductor 21 leads to the polev 22 of the battery 23; while the conductor 37 leads to the conductor 24, thus completing the circuit through the battery, and all of the alarm devices 27 of the boxes where the doors are closed, when the switch arm 39 is in the closed position, .or that .indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 1.

From the foregoing description the operation of my improved construction will be readily understood. Assuming'that a fire occurs in room 3, the guest of the room, by breaking a glass plate 42, gains access to a key 43, whereby the door 8 is unlocked. As soon as this occurs, a spring 44 mounted on each box 5 will throw the door open and allow the contact 10 to come into engagement with the contact 9, completing the circuit through the annunciator 16, whereby the numeral 3, corresponding with the number of the room, will be exposed in the clerks oflice. The clerk will then know that a fire has occurred in room 3, and may, if he desires, by closing the switch arm 39, alarm the guests of all the other rooms since the moving of the switch arm into engagement with the contact 38 will close the circuit through the alarm devices 37 of the boxes 5 of all the rooms.

The object of so arranging the system that the bell in the room from which the alarm was given shall not be sounded when the other bells are sounded, is to avoid confusion upon the part of the occupant of that room. If after he had broken into the alarm-box in his room and sent an alarm to the otfice, a bell in his room should ring, he would naturally presume that it was some signal from the ofiice and he might delay in leaving the room in order to ascertain what the signal was. This would be true particularly if there was a telephone in the room. Devices'of this sort are designed for the protection of persons in case that every effort be made to remove any It is a possible tendency toward confusion. with this object in view that applicant has provided apparatus in which the bell will not be sounded after the box has been opened.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

1. In an apparatus of the class described, the combination of a box having a door springactuated for opening" purposes, means for locking the door in the closed position, two alarms, two electric circuits in which the alarms are located, and means applied to the box for making and breakingthe two circuits, the make and break devices being so arranged that the opening or closing of the doormakes one circuit and breaks the other.

2. The combination of a box, the box having a hinged door spring-actuated for opening purposes, a lock for the door, two alarms, circuits in which the alarms are respectively located, two sets of contacts concealed within the box when the door is closed, means carried by the door for separating one set of contacts and bringing the other set into engagement when the door is closed.

3. The combination of a box, the box having a hinged door spring-actuated for opening purposes, a lock. for the door, two alarms, circuits in which the alarms are respectively located, two contacts carried by the box and located in one circuit, a projection carried by the door and acting on one of said contacts to separate the said contacts'when the door is closed, and other contacts respectively carried by the door and the body of the box and located in the other circuit, said last named contacts being in engagement with each other when the door is closed and separated when the door is open, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

A. J. OBRIEN, CHRISTOPHER J. THoRMAN. 

